Mateo, a cook at Buca di Beppo, faces a choice: take an executive chef promotion or focus on his unlicensed cannabis business that makes roughly $560 a day. Chris Collins argues the restaurant job won't teach him how to scale a real business, and suggests finding a group of entrepreneurs instead.
Mateo, how are you?
Very well. How you doing, Chris?
I'm pretty good. What's going on?
All right. It's an honor to finally speak to the business whisperer himself. Thank you so much.
Yeah, I'm excited. So tell me about your business.
Absolutely. The reason why I'm calling is I have duality happening in, in my life right now, and it's. It goes with my business, it goes with my financials, and it's perfect moment to really get your advice. Long story short, I've been a cook for 10 years. I have been in the cannabis industry for 13 years. I've been doing it since I'm a young boy, and it's my true passion. The reason why I've been in the kitchen is because it's kept a steady income. And I finally reached the point at the restaurant where I work now, Buca di Beppo, where they want to promote me. They want to make me executive chef of my own store, which requires a lot of time and a lot of devotion to the restaurant. And on the other hand, that would take a lot from my personal business, from my cannabis business that is really the center of my heart. That also has its own connotation.
The business is working almost magically, I could say. The quality of the product is really bringing. It started just as a friend type of thing, just to my friends, and it really expanded very quickly. And right now I have the potential of making $560 to my pocket daily just with, just with my business. So I wanted to ask you to wear my shoes, go back 20 years to your Converse, when you were in bands, when you were growing as an entrepreneur, and think, is it worth it to take a couple years, three years as.
Intense management in Buka, take a pay cut? Because I wouldn't be able to attend to my business as much and then use that knowledge to truly expand in two years. Or should I burn all my bridges, as you said in previous podcasts, and go head in first to what I truly love and believe in?
What do you think you would get out of the Buca di Beppo training?
I think I would gain volume management and I would gain as a human being. It would be a growing experience because it's a very demanding job. So it would put me in a situation where I can, in my head, I can run a bigger operation in the cannabis industry. But again, that, that is something I wouldn't be able to say because I haven't ever done it.
What is it in your, in your cannabis business? Are you Growing? Is that what you're doing?
I actually, well, I am a grower, but where I, where I got that success, where there was a little bit of magic happening, is in me selling experience. So.
As I told you, started with my friends, I would ask them when they would come to my house, how do you want to feel? Do you want to feel relaxed? Do you want to feel euphoric? Do you want to feel happy? Do you want to go to work? And from there I created a three part.
Micro dosage monster. You could say it's a small nog covered in oil and thc. It's basically pure THC that allows you to smoke a lot less, spend a lot less and medicate twice as much with delicious flavor and solventless serpents. This is the reason why I'm having so much demand. My phone is blowing up and dispensaries and other businesses truly want my product. One key point about this is that I do not have a license to run cannabis. So the license, I just manufacture the product and it gets sold by the dispensaries with their license and their deal.
So what is, what is your biggest problem? Scaling? I don't. The thing that I think you could help Buca di Beppo with is creating some sort of blend or experience that makes people want to eat more. And then you could go to Buca di Beppo corporate and say, I'll increase your sales because I have this experience. We'll do it in, you know, before people come in and then they'll eat more. I don't understand how the Buca di Beppo management is going to help you with your cannabis business.
Well, the reason why it would help me is just, it's just learning how to, how to manage a big group of people, learning how to and having that big volume experience. But again, you keep saying that you don't understand. And that for me is a signal to truly follow.
My choice. I mean, obviously my choice is continue the cannabis and push as far in, as hard as possible in the entrepreneurship.
This is, this is what I, what I would offer you is you should, you should talk to one of my people off the air. But you'd learn more in a syndicate than you would being a manager at Buca di Beppo. And you'd learn more being surrounded by other people who have businesses, not just cannabis, but businesses that are entrepreneurs that are scaling and growing and being in a room with real entrepreneurs. The problem with Buca di Beppo is you'll learn leadership and you'll learn volume, but you won't learn how to be an entrepreneur. And the hardest part of business is being an entrepreneur.
The hardest part is having payroll due on Wednesday and it's Monday, and you don't, you don't have any money in your account.
You're not going to learn that at Buca di Beppo. You're not going to learn those really hard. There's nothing that prepares you for that. You don't come out of Harvard Business School ready for that.
That is, that is the encouragement and the words a young entrepreneur.
Needs and could use to really believe in, believe in himself. And I'm definitely, definitely gonna, gonna take your advice. I will look for syndicate. I will look for groups of entrepreneurs. I follow all of your podcasts. I listen to business outlaws. It's really a treat. It's really a treat what you're doing and sending the elevator back to us. It's something that I've never seen a celebrity or someone with your quality do before. And very respectable.
Yeah. I think for business outlaws. Mike and I both, I think, are overwhelmed with the feedback and love that we get. And I think that was our intention, was we were going to give back kind of unconditionally and do what nobody did for us when we were younger, you know?
Right. And I've noticed that you've grown your, your social media financially. I mean, you're your thoughts towards Instagram, Twitter, two years ago when you were sitting with Gary on the table. We're completely different to now, am I right?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're growing. We're growing fast.
It's fun.
It'S very nice. I'm also, I'm also on social media and you will definitely see the growth of my decision and the path that I'm taking. I'm definitely going to follow, follow your advice.
Okay. Well, I would love to see in a syndicate. Mateo, I think we can help you scale. So reach out to Corey or somebody and we'll talk about it.
Be an honor. Thank you very much. And.
I'm in San Diego.
Thank you. We'll talk soon.
Appreciate you, Chris. Take care.
It.
